Lupercalia
by MissJayne
Summary: Tony and Ziva attempt a quiet Valentine's Day meal together, but seem to have picked the most popular restaurant in town.  Tiva, minor McAbby and Jibbs.


Lupercalia

Anthony DiNozzo loved Valentine's Day. It was the most important day of the year. Not a day to spend alone, certainly not – that was something for the Probie to do. Someone like him, God's gift to women, had not spent the special day alone since he was eleven.

He loved everything about it. The gifts, which he didn't mind spending his hard-earned pay on. Chocolates, flowers, wine, lingerie. Cards which declared his love for all women far better than he could himself. The same cards that could be given to a multitude of Valentines without anyone of them knowing about the other.

The meals in candle-lit restaurants. Plenty of delicious food, all paid for by him, in the company of a beautiful woman who laughed at his jokes and adored him.

On the surface, this year was the same as every other. He was sitting with a beautiful woman in a nice restaurant, something a little out of the way. The proprietor owed him a favor after his Navy son had been framed for murder a month ago; NCIS had cleared him and caught the true perpetrator.

The restaurant felt intimate – tables were far enough apart that there was no fear of a soft conversation being overheard, candles adorned every surface, vases of flowers were everywhere, and yet the place was not filled to the brim like most other establishments on this day. The waitresses were quiet and discrete – he could have got down on one knee and proposed and it was unlikely anyone else would have noticed.

The difference this year was the woman in front of him. Ziva. No more sending cards to multiple women; she knew of his practice and would torture him if he even thought about it. It hadn't stopped him from counting and displaying all the cards he had received (although he had been perturbed when Ziva had received more than just his card). No more having to decide who his favorite was, which could take weeks, as he could only really take one woman to dinner.

He loved Ziva differently to all the other women before her. It wasn't his usual 'fall in love with them and fall out of love three weeks later' love; it was something much deeper and it scared him at times. He allowed her to see past the mask he presented to the rest of the world; he allowed her to see him vulnerable and she did not run a mile. She even allowed him glimpses beneath her own mask.

They knew when to push a subject and when to leave it alone. They were happy to simply spend time together outside the Navy Yard and not necessarily fill it with activities and endless chatter. She did not mind when he looked at other women, because she knew he would only look and then come back to her.

Work-wise, it was another matter. Gibbs was a stickler for Rule Twelve and would quite possibly start constructing a sniper's nest if he discovered two of his agents breaking it under his nose. And so they forced themselves to try not to change, to banter as usual, and argue and fight, and tease McGee. Everything stayed the same as they couldn't risk change.

Across the table, his Israeli beauty leant forward and nudged his hand. "Earth to Tony," she called softly.

He shot her a winning grin. "Do you want to skip dessert?"

She frowned at him, not needing to answer in words. A miniscule jerk of her head towards the door gave him the hint to casually turn around and observe…

"McVirgin? What is _he _doing _here _on _this_ night?"

"I would have thought that was quite obvious."

He turned back round to face his lover. "Yeah, but this is _McGee_. Never even kissed a girl, much less gone any further. No way does he have a date on Valentine's Day."

Ziva smirked. "Are you jealous?"

"He could never get anyone like you," he informed her seriously, before turning his thoughts back to his co-worker. "I bet it's some Level Five Sorceress or something. He's never met her in real life and she's going to turn out to be a four hundred pound he."

"How much will you bet?" The smirk on her face told him she knew something he didn't, but he was obsessing too much over McGee's date to notice it.

"Takeout for a month," he offered. "Next year, I should do some online thingy and ask him on a date for Valentine's. Stand the Probie up. Serve him right for agreeing to meet strange women from the cyber world."

Ziva kicked his leg, hard, and gestured for him to turn around again. The mysterious date had arrived.

Their very own Mistress of the Night had appeared. McGee helped her remove her coat and led her to a table not far away from where the other couple was sitting.

"Abby?" Tony hissed at Ziva. "She told you, didn't she?"

She smiled. "It is a female thing, to talk about men, yes?"

He rolled his eyes, hoping against all hope she would forget about the bet but knowing she never would. His evil ninja Mossad chick…

"It won't be a problem," he realized. "McGee and Abby can't tell Gibbs about us without having to admit they're breaking Rule Twelve as well. And if Gibbs ever _does _find out about us, we can tell him McGee's sleeping with the favorite and he'll run away to defend her honor. Safety in numbers."

"Why did you think it would be a problem?" Ziva questioned, glancing over at the other table. "Do you think McGee is the type to propose in public? If he does, I think we should go over and congratulate them."

"Do you know something I don't?" he asked.

She gave him an enigmatic smile. "I know a lot of things that you do not," she replied. "But I do not know about McGee possibly proposing. I was just curious."

Tony didn't like it when Ziva became curious; it either led to him trying to persuade her to not take an insane course of action or going along with her on said insane course of action.

"Like I said," he continued, hoping to steer the conversation back to safer waters. "It's not a problem. Gibbs is not going to find out about us."

Ziva kicked him under the table again; he forced himself not to yelp.

"What?" he hissed.

She raised her eyebrows; he took it as his cue to casually turn round and look at the door again.

Afterwards, he would have sworn his heart stopped for a moment.

"What is _Gibbs _doing here?"

Ziva simply smiled. "It looks as though he is treating Jenny."


End file.
